Simulation of Surface Residual Stress in Railway Axles and Its Influence on Crack Propagation Behavior

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.18.230

Abstract

Abstract: The axle is a crucial component in the running gear of rail vehicles, and its fatigue and fracture performance are critical for the safety of railway operations. To enhance the strength of the axle, especially its fatigue strength, surface strengthening treatments such as quenching, rolling, and shot peening are commonly applied to introduce residual compressive stresses, thereby improving the axle's resistance to fatigue fracture. To investigate the influence of residual stresses on the crack propagation behavior and fatigue life of the axle, ABAQUS and its associated subroutines are utilized to simulate the residual stresses introduced after the strengthening process. Under the combined action of interference fit and the rotating bending load experienced during the service of the wheelset, the Extended Finite Element Method is employed to characterize the crack propagation behavior after crack initiation. This aims to reveal the effects of interference fit and residual stresses on the stress intensity factor at the crack tip, the evolution of crack morphology, and changes in crack propagation velocity. Additionally, the subroutine is used to simulate the effect of the rotating bending load primarily experienced by the axle during service, making the simulated crack propagation process more closely aligned with actual experiments. For axles that have undergone surface strengthening treatments and are influenced by residual stresses, failure to consider the effects of residual stresses in simulation analyses may lead to results that deviate from reality and are over conservative.

Key words: residual stress, railway axles, crack growth, rotating bending load, extended finite element method

CLC Number:

U266

YANG Bing, Lü Peijin, HUANG Mian, XU Yanhui, XIAO Shoune, YANG Guangwu, ZHU Tao. Simulation of Surface Residual Stress in Railway Axles and Its Influence on Crack Propagation Behavior[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(18): 230-239.

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